Rafael Nadal

People should be allowed to take whatever they want and still compete. Id love to see Bolt doing the 100m in 3.2 smacked out his head At the very least lest have a druggy games right after the Paraolympics have been on. Its just like F1. They spend more time coming up with regulations to impede progress. The rules should be get round that track 70 odd times as fast as you can.

I think some if not all of the superhuman achievements by Nadal and Djokovic could be attributed to science : improved training / fitness, better nutrition (gluten free diet), recovery pod... Having said that, I marvel at this year AO how they were able to battle it out over 6 hours at a really high level, hitting 40+ rallies running flat out in the 5th set. Especially Djokovic after his 5 hours match with Andy less than 48 hours earlier. I recall him eating something strange looking during matches previously. Couldn't say what it was. It did not look like chocolate. Something chewy that Nole quickly hid under his towel after taking a few bites quickly at the break over.

Maybe they are just blessed with special genes ! Nadal with his huge biceps, quads even in his early days ...

On another note I read that Rafa has earmarked Rio 2016 as his retirement date. Kind of strange to hear given that Fed wants to be there too. Sad.

I don't think that there is a hope on hell of Federer being at Rio as a competitor. I think we are seeing the first signs of decline. I know people have been predicting it for ages, but it has to happen at some point. Fed is already 31, it is getting harder to manage long stretches of matches. I think the same will apply to Ferrer. Murray's time is upon us.

Rio is on clay, I believe, so I can just about see Rafa there, providing his injuries don't get worse again once he starts playing.Really miss his presence on the tour. Don't think Fed has a hope in hell of a gold medal at Rio. Indeed it would be shocking if he did.

It is quite possible that Nadal chooses to compete mainly on clay, grass and GSs and still be competitive.

This year, in 6 months which includes a totally dominant clay season, Nadal has earned more points than Andy has in 9 months which is why Nadal is still 3rd in the race to London WTF leading to some newspapers misreporting Nadal as 3rd in the singles ranking. Absolutely incredible. Before the USO win, Andy was 2100 points behind and now only 100 points or so behind. Andy has gained ~4000 points on Nadal (after the latter loss to Rosol) at Wim, Olympic, and USO just to catch up.

Prior to Wim, Andy has earned a meagre ~3000 points or so leading some here to fear him dropping out of the top 4.